


Momentary Reunion at The Parting of Ways

by Washedawaycloud



Series: Ripples of Bad Wolf [8]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Episode: s01e13 The Parting of the Ways, F/M, Gen, Implied Polyfidelity, Mild Angst, Regeneration, everyone is dying, implied polyamory, the Vortex - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-29
Updated: 2021-01-29
Packaged: 2021-03-15 04:13:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29058009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Washedawaycloud/pseuds/Washedawaycloud
Summary: She is there when she's needed most.
Relationships: Ninth Doctor/Rose Tyler, The Corsair/Ninth Doctor, The Doctor (Doctor Who)/Rose Tyler, The Doctor/The Corsair
Series: Ripples of Bad Wolf [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2050176
Comments: 3
Kudos: 2





	Momentary Reunion at The Parting of Ways

She wakes to the words “I want you safe, my Doctor.” She knows those words. They are seared into her very soul. It’s been so long. Her steps are wobbly as she moves through the console room. Where – where are they?

“Oh, Rose.” She knows Rose, has seen Rose through the Doctor’s eyes for years now. She’d given him hell for his mistakes with the young woman, and now she’s killing herself to save him. She can feel it, see it all, just like Rose does. But it’s not melting her brain like it is Rose.

Rose is the Moment. Older, wiser, so very confused and fractured. Dark hands pull the young woman from the Doctor’s hold. He can’t take it all or the loop collapses. They know. They’ve been in the Moment for years now.

“Sleep, Rose,” she presses her lips to Rose’s temple and the girl goes limp in her arms. And her Doctor, her stupid young yet old man, is already on the floor. The Vortex is not kind to those who shouldn’t have it. For all Time loves the Doctor, he wasn’t supposed to do this.

“Keiraden?” Her hands had barely touched him when their bond roars into solidity. It’s such a feeling as she cannot describe. Encompassing. Part of her is sad she never felt it settle properly that first night. But neither of them had been of a mind to handle it. They were rage and grief and war wrapped in Gallifreyan form.

“Oh Thete, what have you done?” She sighs his nickname to him, as he had questioned with hers. IT’s nothing to get him into the TARDIS, nothing to suck the Vortex out of him. She can smell the Lindos hormone in him, ramping up to save him again. “You run through regenerations like water, my dear.”

“Hazard of the job,” he jokes, hands lifting to tug at her curls. “How are you real?”

“Maybe I’m an angel,” she teases, breathing the vortex out and into the TARDIS. She’s not sure she _is_ real anymore. She’d held the Vortex and was still breathing, of a sort, her lindos remains inert. But the song of time is strong in her, too strong.

“You can’t remember this, the heart of my hearts. I’m sorry.”

“No. Not again.”

“It’s not time yet.”

“🎵 🎶 – “ the song of her name through time makes her eyes water, and her hands clutch at the jacket so reminiscent of the one he took to in the war. “I can’t do this without you, too.”

“You have to, just a little while longer.” She leans in, pressing her lips to his overheated forehead. “You’re regenerating, focus.”

“All I want to focus on is you –“ he has that bullheaded look on his face that she loves and hates in equal measure.

“Focus, you have so much to heal, don’t waste this.”

Rose’s breathing changes and the Corsair looks over at the girl who is not just a girl anymore. _Sister_ whispers the TARDIS, and there is a tug right behind her sternum. What they all do for this insane soul encased in flesh…

There is a problem running toward them, and the Corsair stands, moving on instinct. They can’t stay here. _That_ cannot be inside the TARDIS while her bondmate is regenerating. It’s wrong. It feels – she can’t find appropriate words. Too much at once, not there in reality, beyond reality, steeped in time that isn’t theirs.

The Doctor and Rose wake at the same time, glimpsing black-red curls for just a moment before the dance of forgetting begins again. The Corsair is back in the box with the Moment.

And she is dying.

“Fuck.”


End file.
